Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, panty liners, and incontinence pads are devices that are typically worn in the crotch region of an undergarment. These devices are designed to absorb and retain liquid and other discharges from the human body and to prevent body and clothing soiling. Sanitary napkins are a type of absorbent article worn by women in a pair of panties that is normally positioned between the wearer's legs, adjacent to the perineum. Sanitary napkins of a wide variety of shapes and dimensions are currently used by women for the collection of menses and other bodily discharges.
In the past, a number of efforts have been directed at providing sanitary napkins that maintain contact with the wearer's body. One attempt to provide such body contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,747,575 issued May 29, 1956 to Mercer. The Mercer patent discloses a catamenial bandage having a longitudinal hump which bulges towards and may contact the body of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,130 issued to DesMarais on Jan. 10, 1984, discloses a compound sanitary napkin that comprises a primary menstrual pad and a panty protector joined to one another at their corresponding ends in such a manner that the two constituents are free to move relative to one another along essentially their entire common length. The primary menstrual pad is intended to absorb the bulk of the bodily fluids discharged by the user, while the panty protector is intended to protect the user's garments from soiling. In use, the relative freedom of movement between the primary menstrual pad and the panty protector serves to maintain the primary menstrual pad adjacent to the user's crotch region while the panty protector remains associated with the user's undergarment.
PCT International Patent Application Publication No. WO 94/16658, entitled “Generally Thin, Flexible Sanitary Napkin With Central Absorbent Hump”, published in the name of Osborn on Aug. 4, 1994, discloses a generally thin, flexible sanitary napkin which has a central absorbent hump, and is capable of handling medium to high menstrual flows.
Thus, the absorbent articles having humps are useful to allow close contact of the absorbent articles to the wearer's body, whereby the humps preferentially acquires body fluid. However, due to the limited size of the humps, such humps do not typically have sufficient absorption capacity for retaining the acquired body fluid over the period of the use of the absorbent article. Therefore, after the absorption capacity of the hump is exhausted by body fluid discharged from the wearer's body, body fluid tends to overflow from the hump and causes rewet feeling to the wearer and/or leakage from the absorbent article, thereby causing soil of the wearer's undergarment.
Thus, there is a need for an absorbent article which relatively quickly acquires body fluid discharged from the wearer's body. There is also a need for an absorbent article which relatively quickly moves absorbed body fluid away from the wearer's body. There is also a need for an absorbent article which relatively quickly moves absorbed body fluid into the absorbent article. There is also a need for an absorbent article which has an enhanced absorption capacity for body fluid.